Healing Roots to host Vendor Show

On Saturday, April 27, Malta's Business Center will be holding a Mother's Day Vendor Show and Grand Opening for one of Malta's newest businesses; Healing Roots.

The event that starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. will feature over 15 local vendors, door prizes, a Mother's Day Basket, and much more.

The owner and operator of Healing Roots is Katie Brown, a Malta native, and fourth generation rancher. Brown is a licensed massage therapist, who has recently become an advocate for allergen-free foods.

"My oldest (Anna) has food allergies, and it's really hard to get that stuff here in a small community," Brown said.

Anna was diagnosed with food allergies and an auto-immune disorder about two years ago. Anna was four and is now six. That is when Brown realized that foods friendly to her diet including milk and cereal were hard to come by.

Rather than complain about the curveball that life threw Brown with her child's food allergies, Brown became proactive, and opened Healing Roots as a way for folks around the area to obtain allergen-free foods.

"My goal was to carry items that she could have; That's how I originally started," Brown said. "And then it kind of expanded into different items that you cannot get locally. I want to have what we need and have people shop locally."

Brown went on to say that her goal is to have those items at an affordable price.

"These type of products can be hard to find and very expensive," Brown said.

Though Brown has a limited amount of inventory and space in her store, she is open to suggestions for allergen-free food items, and has several vendors that can supply items that shoppers may be looking for in town.

"Each month I will be getting in new inventory and I hope to expand, grow, and have to move out into a bigger space," Brown said.

As far as the stores name goes, Brown shared the meaning and the way she came up with Healing Roots.

"I had a mass brain-storm," Brown said of the name. "It is something more organic and healing because I also do massages. My roots are in Malta, and they always have been. I left but came back."

Brown is a 2006 graduate of Malta High School. After she graduated she moved to North Dakota to attend and eventually graduate from college, moved to Havre and then back to Malta around 2011.

The type of massage therapies that Brown offers at Healing Roots include; Swedish Massage, Hot Stone, Foot Reflexology, Deep Tissue, and Seaweed Wraps.

Healing Roots had a ribbon cutting event with the Malta Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, April 17. The Grand-opening takes place on Saturday, April 27.

The store is located at room 12 in the Malta Business Center. The store number for Healing Roots and Message Therapy is 390-6581.